LeafBlade Camp, Where the wild ones reside...

[fyreshadowes(A)]

The LeafBlade camp is in the very heart of the forest where they make their home. Most of the time it's almost empty apart from the nursing mothers and elders. Some LeafBlade wolves don't even sleep in the camp. Nonetheless, it's protected on all sides by huge boulders that the LeafBlade pack's ancestors rolled there centuries ago.

[Jacqueline(LB)]

Sighing with relief at being back home, Jacqueline slipped through a crack between two huge boulders and breathed deeply the scents of camp. It was good to be back, even if she had had to warn off a couple of LeafBlade patrols who had scented her. "I'm back," she said aloud, the sound of her voice bouncing off the rocks. "LeafBlade Beta is back!"

No one answered. Presumably they were all out hunting. Then a voice called from one of the burrows beneath the rocks. "Jake?"

"It's me," Jacqueline answered, approaching the mouth of the den. An ash-gray head poked out and blinked up at her.

"Hi! You didn't sleep in the camp last night."

Jacqueline shrugged. "Just going with the flow." None of the normal wolves besides Karl had ever known she was a form user, but luckily LeafBlade wolves rarely slept in camp anyway. "It was a nice night. How are the pups?" she asked, changing the subject.

The she-wolf smiled. "They're fine. I've named them." She drew back, allowing Jacqueline to peer inside the den. Sahira's two pups were squirming blindly in the protection of her bushy tail. One was gray like Sahira, the other was a orange-gold. "The gray one's Ashier, and the gold one's Carli."

Jacqueline smiled in satisfaction and gave Carli a quick lick before withdrawing her head.

"I think he would have been proud of them," Sahira said quietly.

Jacqueline's smile faded. Flattening her ears, she rubbed her cheek against Sahira's comfortingly. "Yes, he would have."

[Jacqueline(LB)]

Jacqueline withdrew her head from the den and trotted around the camp, checking all of the nests and burrows beneath the stones. "Where is everyone?" Not even Holly, the other expecting mother, was in the camp. Thorn, the last elder, had died last moon.

"They're all out and about," Sahira said casually. "Just as usual."

"What about Holly?"

"Oh, Holly." Sahira looked momentarily confused, as if she was trying to remember. "I think she went out with the healer this morning to find some herbs. To help her milk come."

"So you're alone here?" Jacqueline crossed back over to Sahira's den. "Isn't that a bit dangerous? What if a fox found you and the pups?"

Sahira's amber eyes narrowed momentarily, and she said with just a hint of tartness, "I may be nursing, but I'm strong enough to see off a fox. Or a badger, if one of those lumbering things was stupid enough to come here."

"If you say so. I'm worried for the pups, that's all." Jacqueline reached in with a white paw and stroked the top of Ashier's head. "What are their skills?"

Wolves typically guessed what a pup's skills were going to be by their build and personality. Sometimes it was noticeable even while their eyes were still glued shut.

"Well, Carli's nice and bouncy," Sahira said fondly. "Strong legs and keen ears, though her eyes haven't opened. I think she'll be a hunter."

"And Ashier?"

Sahira frowned. "Well, it's him I'm worried about. He's perfectly healthy, but he doesn't respond as much as Carli. He's already letting her crawl all over him. I'm afraid...he'll be..."

"Omega?" Jacqueline said softly.

"Well, perhaps," Sahira admitted. "After all, LeafBlade doesn't have one yet."

"We'll have one soon enough. It's been a year. I assure you, by the time he's grown there'll be a new omega." Jacqueline gave Ashier an extra lick, as if to pass on some protection from the prospect of omegaship, and backed away from the den. "I've got to go."

[Jacqueline(LB)]

Jacqueline let her dominant air relax as she left the camp behind her trotting paws. Around her she could scent the LeafBlade hunters doing their work, but as usual she saw none of them. LeafBlade hunters probably got the closest to being invisible as anyone in the animal kingdom. She knew they observed her, but of course none stopped her.

It was about time for another form user meeting. It had been over a moon since the last one, and she had Karl's death to report, though everyone knew. After all, Jacqueline hadn't bothered to hide her grief. The grief she was still feeling, red and raw, as if it had only been a day since he died.

The first assassin. How Jacqueline longed for revenge, to become an assassin herself. But no. Assassins didn't strike out of anger or hate; they struck because they were ordered to by a higher power. No one would ever tell Jacqueline to kill; after all, she was the one who told others to kill. This was her personal battle.

The demon would pay. Oh, he would pay.